Chilliwack, BC, Canada
May 31, 2025


Small Town TO
This was a rather small-scale destination event, with an 8-slot RCQ kicking off first thing, followed by a cEDH event half an hour later, and then a 4-slot rebound event in the afternoon. There wasn't so much a "staff" as me and one other judge, with the store owner dealing with registrations and payment. I still sent out an email to the other judge to keep things organized. When I got in I put out table numbers, I numbered for about 30 players in the first event, and planned to have the cEDH numbers be contiguous with the end of the RCQ as to not confuse players (there's nothing worse than two table ones!). The next thing I noticed was that the TO's triangular table numbers had no bases, so they tended to fall flat on the table. Luckily I carry a small bag of "tournament supplies" to these smaller events that contains number stands, among other things, so it was easy enough to set up the TO's numbers on the little stands. I pre-prepped my event cover sheets, because I also figured there wouldn't be a printer at the venue. With the small amount of players we had I wasn't terribly concerned about players not being able to find their seats, since I could just whatever small amount of players couldn't find their own seats by looking them up on my phone. I was a little worried that there would be too much logistical stuff for just me and one other person to handle, but I ended up having a fairly easy day. Sometimes I forget how simple running a few RCQs is, compared to the cavalcade of spinning plates that is convention Magic.

A Flashy Plot
NAP cast Orim's Chant and wanted to know if AP could Plot their Slickshot Show-Off. They can! Plotting is a special action that isn't casting a spell and doesn't have any odd restrictions. (CR 702.170a)

cEDH Woes
The cEDH event was a little interesting, the MTR addendum recommended 3 rounds with a cut to top 4, but many of the players expressed a desire to both play more rounds, and not be immediately locked out of top 4 after their first loss. I didn't have strong feelings either way, and changed the structure to much rejoicing. The next issue to tackle was end of round procedure. I decided on "at time in the round active player finishes their turn, if they aren't done after 30 minutes the match is a draw". Luckily I never had to implement the forced draw, since all the players managed to conclude their games successfully within the time limit. I was feeling pretty good about the players' pace of play going into the semifinals and let the players know that I'd give them two hours to play, and then we'd reconvene if the games were still going. After two hours both games were still going and I let the players know that they had thirty more minutes, after which, their options were either we advance the highest seeded player from each pod to the finals, or we use the sudden death rules to determine the winner. The players weren't thrilled with either option, but were more partial to the highest seeded player advancing. Both games managed to conclude within the thirty minutes, and I gave the finals a hard time limit of 3 hours (which would be midnight, which I felt was a reasonable time to kick people out of the hall). Luckily the finals game ended pretty quickly.

...In Conclusion
This wasn't my strongest event, but each event I do I feel like I learn something. In this one, it was to just be more firm with what the plan is for end of round, I feel like I did a good job of that in swiss for cEDH, but was a little more wishy-washy about things in the semi finals, which caused some confusion. Overall though I enjoyed working the event and would happily work it again.